Skylights Speak Secrets
by Acidic Laughter
Summary: The light would chase away the maggots feeding in the shadows and the madness wriggling in the dark corners of her mind. One-shot.


Authors Note: It felt a little too long to put in my drabble series, so it gets its own entry. Yay. ._. Still pretty short, though. I'm jumping on this "write Pinkie slightly insane" bandwagon, but don't worry, she's not a murderer. xD Uhm, T for themes. Just in case, you know? Reviews are love with coffee :D

Disclaimer: Really, what do you think? ._.

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The maggots like to scream at her from the shadows, so Pinkie makes sure to never let the darkness creep into her house. Ms. and Mr. Cake seemed to be aware of how important light was to her, so the candy house was always glowing with colors to keep the shadows away from Pinkie's mind. That way the world is all smiles and there are no tears.

But days when it pours- the tears are from the voices in the skies, she's sure- Pinkie runs to Rainbow Dash. On those days, Dash always seems a bit more gentle, a bit more understanding and there is none of her arrogance or pranks, just a small, sad smile as they fly above the clouds and away from the darkness. And it's alright that way.

Pinkie knows not to trust all light, because cameras flickered with light, too and those could be from the spies that tracked her at every block. They were always after her, and she always had to keep one eye open for the tell-tale sign of blinking red dots and the laughter that would echo from the voices in the corners. But Pinkie was smarter than them, and she knew to crush the cameras they left laying around.

A few times, though, it would take her a little while to identify them, because she was Pinkie and things tended to slip her notice quite often. '_Was that there yesterday? Did Twilight let them in?_' She glared suspiciously at the light on the roof of her friends and resolved that '_It doesn't matter; I'll get rid of it now. I have to' _and she was climbing up the wall to destroy the wretched thing. She grappled with the handholds on the well-worn tree bark walls, keeping her muzzle clamped shut, or they would hear her. It was too soon to alert them of her presence- _but weren't they always there, anyway?_

Pinkie swiped at the light just out of her reach- she was sure they were aware of her now and were jeering- until she tumbled onto the ground with a yelp of "What do you want? Go away, leave me alone, leave me alone!" But today was no different and there was no answer, just silent, cruel chuckles pounding in her ear drums. The red light never stopped flashing, worming its way into her mind until she curled into herself whimpering- she could almost hear their laughter and mocking eyes and-

Twilight came bursting into the guest to find her normally bubbly friend thrashing and squirming in panic, before she glanced up at the ceiling and remembered what Rainbow Dash had said one time- '_Don't let her near any red lights.' _The pony cursed herself for forgetting, before ripping the "camera" off the ceiling. The whimpering bundle that was Pinkie Pie ceased all movement and soon she was peeking out to find the device torn apart, and that awful light dead dead dead. Twilight stared at her a bit uneasily, wary of Pinkie being set off again by something small and irrelevant- it was always the things that nopony would think to fear.

'_No, no, she doesn't need any more pain. Please be okay again, Pinkie. Please.'_

A smile stretched across her face, and Twilight offered her the machine in relief- it was thrown out the window and Twilight muttered to herself "Well, it's alright. I didn't really need a smoke detector anyway."

Pinkie giggled when she saw Twilight mumble to herself and grinned jokingly when she said "And ponies call _me _weird!" Twilight grinned back at her wearily and the balance of the world was seemingly restored- there were no shrieks and sobs and a Pinkie who was terrified of things only she could glimpse.

As Pinkie ambled away from Twilight's tree house and into the streets of Ponyville where a couple of ponies she didn't recognize gave her odd looks, she was certain she wasn't crazy. If anything, it was her friends who went through life horribly blind to the demons that watched them- sometimes, she hoped they were grateful for her insight. A couple of times, when they were nodding to her explanation of why not to go down the street with the banana vendor- it was absolutely rotting with the damn maggots, you see- she thought that maybe, they really did understand.

But she had paid attention to their reactions to a pony with the signs of a spy- snake eyes- but their expressions seemed as glazed as usual. It was then she concluded they didn't have the sight the way she did, and it was her duty to protect them. '_They won't ever understand the danger we're always in. I can't let their hearts get captured by the venom.'_

Eventually, she had resolved that the best way to go about her job was to always make them laugh. Laughter chased away the dark demons in the shadows; her mother had always told her. If they always smiled and their hearts remained pure, then the parasites that sucked the souls from ponies could never really sink their dreadful grip into them.

One time, when the night was still and the shadows seemed to recede away, the stars had whispered to her secrets about the beings that hid in the trenches of soul and in the fearful tremors of a heart (she had learned that day that they were always, _always _there). She remembered sinking into the grass as the words flowed around her, trying to keep the shudders from reaching her heart- lest they grasp onto her and never let go. She was right to be afraid.

The skylights stayed silent for a long time after that.


End file.
